The European Union, Australia and Costa Rica, on Thursday 2 December, led an initiative by 67 World Trade Organization (WTO) members on trade in services.
The text aims to simplify some of the complex rules governing trade in services and to facilitate access for small and medium-sized enterprises. This implies simpler procedures for authorising economic actors to provide services. The agreement provides, for example, for the authorities of the member countries to inform economic actors more about the procedures, to authorise online filing, to impose fairly long registration periods, etc.
Furthermore, the text specifies that measures taken by a member in the context of its authorisation procedure for the provision of services must not discriminate against either women or men.
In concrete terms, the participants in the agreement commit themselves to adopting the provisions of the text in their “schedule of commitments”. Since 1995, trade in services around the world has been governed by the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). It includes general obligations applicable to all members, but also additional obligations, which are included by each member in its “schedule of commitments”. They will have to complete the latter by the end of 2022.
This agreement is not binding on all WTO members, but only on the 67 participants. There are no members of the Least developed countries (LDC) among the participants of this deal. “We aim at expanding the participants, as it would benefit those LDC countries”, said the Australian Ambassador, George Mina.
EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis welcomed the conclusion. “This is a major achievement. Today’s agreement covers 90% of global trade in services and it will unlock billions of euros of growth thanks to clearer rules, more transparency and less red tape”, he said.
See the agreement: https://bit.ly/3Ek83Qi (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)